Returning Home
by Dragon'sHost
Summary: It's been a long time since Ashido's been home. Things have changed, and so has he. It may take some time to adjust.
1. Chapter 1

**This was based on a prompt from Eien. I decided to use it as a first chapter for a multichapter fic featuring my favorite Rukia pairing! _This is my ship_. Ashido was done a dirty in canon and I refuse to let that stand.**

 **That being said, I plan to make this fic pretty much episodic. Shorter, more contained chapters.**

 **Although the focus is on reintegration and all that comes with it... this is going to be a slightly more lighthearted take on the theme than what I have written/plan to write in other fics.**

 **Ashido's age: I had to make a guess here, folks. He said "centuries" in the anime, and given that shinigami _do_ seem to age... I decided that since Ashido hasn't visibly aged, it's somewhere between 2 and 3. Also for plot reasons. So in this fic, he's been in the forest for a little over 200 years.**

 **Sorry for the long notes, and I hope you enjoy!**

 **Prompt: "You came back."**

* * *

Hope is a poison.

Ashido had known that for a long, long time. It had sat in his soul for years, while he waited in the emptiness of Hueco Mundo for rescue that was not coming - never was. Corroding, eating away inside and filling up the vacant space in the wake of its meal. It drove him to create graves for people that had left no bodies behind. So that he would not forget them, an eternal reminder that someday he would bring their spirits home.

But time pressed in on him, and every day it became just a little harder to take up his zanpakuto. A little harder to fight. Harder to face the blank graves.

The day he stopped believing that someone was coming to find his vanished team was the day hope died in him.

And that was when he truly understood Hollows for the first time. How it felt to be left with a huge, gaping nothing inside. What it was like when no one came to save you from your agony. He was on his own, with nothing but the graves and Hollows for company.

A few more years passed, and even that pain had faded; the wound in his soul scarring over. New scars crisscrossing his heart; flesh that did not feel pain, or cold, or warmth.

It no longer hurt to talk to his friends.

Still, he kept going. Ashido didn't want to die. Not yet. He wanted his friends to be proud of him when he finally rejoined them. Duty and his sword were all he had left. That, and the knowledge that he could still do some good in this hollow, empty world.

But then, he'd met another shinigami for the first time in his centuries of isolation.

Rukia… Kuchiki.

Ashido remembered the Kuchiki's being a powerful noble clan back in the Seireitei. But that meant little in the Menos Forest. So he'd tested her. Burden or comrade? He had to know which she would be. It was better for the both of them that way.

Rukia, though… she was strong. Even after seeing the horror of the Forest, she had not wavered in her conviction to find her friend, to venture into a place of monsters he had taken care to avoid all this time. Las Noches was a nest of adjuchas, and their vasto lorde King of Hueco Mundo held power far beyond that of any captain in the seireitei. The shinigami had long believed the vasto lordes to be a superior class of menos, but they had no true understanding of what this one was capable of. Yet Rukia still wanted to go, to save her friend.

She'd greeted _his_ friends with him.

How long had it been since he'd last visited them, before she came? How long had they waited for someone to come rescue _them_?

Too long. Far, far too long.

And she had told it to him straight, when he'd asked about the level of Hollows in the Living World. He'd appreciated that, despite her reluctance to talk about whatever tragedy had befallen the shinigamis. Ashido wondered, too, about the circumstances that had led to someone being captured and held at Las Noches. In his memories, the vasto lorde that ruled there did not care to take hostages. Even if he did, the chances of Rukia's friend surviving long were... minimal.

Her dedication to her friends evoked his admiration, and respect.

It had been slow, and insidious, this poison she had afflicted him with once more.

The hope of seeing his home again, the chance to finally let his friends' families know how they'd spent their final moments. He'd given up on that… until her.

And now here he was, again. Alone in a forest of death. With only the Hollows and the silent graves for company.

Strangely, there was no resentment in him for the brief hope she'd given him. No, instead he was… happy. Happy that he made a difference at last, after centuries of effort.

He hoped she found her friend. That _she_ wouldn't be too late, as he had been for his.

For now, his plan was to search for another way out of this place. Where Rukia and her friends had fallen through was a good place to start as any.

If all else failed, he could always take a chance and leap through a garganta again. A faint smile spread across his lips at the thought. Exciting way to return… he was sure to cause a fuss.

He would save that as a last recourse, though.

Exhaustion crawled through him, slowing his blade. Ashido hadn't quite rested enough after he'd taken down the Hollows chasing Rukia's group. It was time to think about retreating, but there were still so many Hollows close to his hideout. Something was definitely changing on the surface, and now the Hollows in the Menos Forest were frenzied.

He hoped that Rukia was still alive.

Suddenly, the movements of the Hollows changed once more. They became listless, confused.

Then he heard it - explosions from above! Like the Hollows, he turned to face the source, watching as sand burst downward from the desert's ceiling. The petrified trees creaked and groaned, and Ashido found himself running as they crumbled and fell.

Hollows screamed - those that were not swift enough were buried by the raining crystalline wood.

Just as abruptly as it had begun, it ended - the screams of the escaping Hollows cutting off in the middle.

The temperature plunged, and Ashido's breath came out in white clouds.

He knew this reiatsu. He knew it.

This was more than he had even dared to hope for. So much more.

She stood in front of him. Covered in small scrapes and dried blood, her clothes tattered from battle.

"You came back."

His voice was hoarse, and the words seemed inadequate for the emotions bursting inside of him, where once was numb emptiness. She shouldn't have given him a second thought once was she was out of this place. Her job had been to focus on her friend. Not on returning for him. He was used to being on his own.

Her smile was like the sun he hadn't seen in these many long years. Bright, rare, and beautiful.

"Ashido. Let's go home."


	2. Chapter 2

**Hard to believe it's been a year since I updated this.**

 **At any rate, enjoy.**

* * *

Home was gone.

Ashido wasn't certain what to make of Rukia's Seireitei.

It had been clear from her speech down in the Menos Forest that tragedy of some sort had struck it. Battle scars were obvious across the buildings, built into the landscape. They were scabbed over, healing, but to Ashido's eyes they may as well have been shouting in visual form. Most glaring to his gaze was the absence of the Soukyoku on its hill. Just what had occurred here?

Rukia had shaken her head when he'd asked, promising to tell him about it later. He had a feeling that he wouldn't ask – he understood the deep-seated pain etched across her face. Had seen it every day for a very long time.

Byakuya Kuchiki, the current leader of the Kuchiki clan, was far more difficult to read than his sister. He excelled in the silence and sternness that his clan was famous for bearing. At the same time, Ashido felt a kinship with the man. Something about his countenance spoke to him of loss, and the will to keep moving despite it. There was something about Byakuya that resembled his sister, too, though it was not in their faces. Honestly, Ashido would have never pegged them for related if Rukia had not introduced him as her sibling. Odd.

Seeing Unohana as Captain of Division Four instead of Eleven had shaken Ashido to his core. She'd smiled benignly at him in recognition which was both welcome and wholly terrifying. Present along with Byakuya and Rukia in his rescue, Ashido was still grateful to her for tending to his wounds afterward, and he understood the tacit order to keep his mouth shut.

All of this, and more, forced Ashido to come to the conclusion that this was no longer the Seireitei he had called home. Certainly, it looked familiar, and there were even a few faces he knew. But so much had changed over his long absence…

Home was gone. Well and truly gone.

No matter, Ashido decided. He had buried the thought of returning to it once, when he had buried his friends. He could do so again. But this time, he wouldn't bury his new friends with it.

In the meantime, he needed to learn how to navigate these new waters in which he found himself and fast.

Noticing his unease as they traveled the corridors of seki seki, Rukia gave him a long look. "Is something wrong?" she inquired.

He took his time to formulate an answer for her. "Not really," came his eventual response.

Giving him a slight smile, Rukia consoled, "Don't worry about your meeting with the Head Captain. I doubt he's any different now than he was when you were last here."

It was disturbing how quickly she could cut through to his true feelings. In a good sort of way. "That's what I'm afraid of," he intoned, his lips quirking up in a half-smile. "But thanks."

"Was that a joke?" she teased him, mischievousness encroaching in her gaze.

"Who knows?"

She snorted in a very unladylike way, garnering a raised eyebrow from her brother at her impropriety.

No, Ashido had no intention of ever burying Rukia.

His meeting with the Head Captain was more interrogation than anything else. Not that he had expected differently, if he were being honest. Ashido had surprising defenders and benefactors in the people that had pulled him out of the Menos Forest, consisting of several Captains.

Watching his own back had become a habit, and his brief association with Rukia wasn't yet enough to throw it, it seemed.

But gratefulness wasn't foreign to him, and he resolved to be as worthy of their support as he could.

At the end of the tense meeting, the decision of what to do with him exactly was left at the feet of the Central 46. That much hadn't changed, Ashido was relieved to see.

"I think that went well," Rukia informed him afterward. "You've got a good portion of the Captains on your side, including Captain Zaraki and Captain Kurotsuchi."

"You might want to be worried about that, actually," interjected her brother with a wry tone. "Those two are both interested in the strength that enabled you to survive for so long in the Menos Forest. For different reasons of course, but both are… _troublesome._ " Rather than saying it, Byakuya more _breathed-out_ the last word, the exasperation of his long acquaintanceship with the two Captains readily apparent.

Rukia restrained a smile at her brother's frustration – outright amusement at ridiculous antics of higher ranking officers being strictly frowned upon in the militaristic hierarchy the Seireitei consisted of.

"Where will I be staying while they decide what to do with me?" Ashido asked. He did not much relish the idea of a cell, but it couldn't have been worse than his accommodations in Hueco Mundo. At least in the Seireitei there was functional plumbing (a discovery he very much enjoyed over the method his era had utilized, though it left him wondering how the night soil reached the farmers).

To his surprise, it was Byakuya that responded. "With us, obviously."

To Rukia's surprise as well, it seemed. "Really, Brother?"

The Captain's brow drew together. "Why so shocked, Rukia? He saved your life in the Menos Forest. I would be remiss not to offer the man hospitality after that. Do you really consider me to be so uncouth, so lacking in manners?"

That brought a fond smile back to Rukia's face. "In my defense, there was a time you thought differently."

History weighted her words with a gravity that Ashido felt the peripheral pull of. At its epicenter, Byakuya seemed the most stricken that he'd ever seen the man thus far. Not a lot compared to other men, but for this particular one it was as clear as the bright, cloudless sky. "Never again," Byakuya answered her, his own words just as weighted. "I was a fool, then."

Somehow, Ashido had a hard time picturing the stoic man for a fool, yet the quiet statement seemed to bring Rukia great comfort. "I know, Brother," she told him. "Thank you."

Byakuya grunted, and then turned his gaze on Ashido. "There you have it. You will be staying the night at our home. I've already sent word ahead to the servants, so you should have a fresh change of clothes prepared for you along with a bath and your room. Is there anything else you need?"

The Shinigami was floored by just that much, honestly. It was far more than he'd expected.

"A bed sounds divine," he replied.

Yes, this new Seireitei would take some getting used to.

But Ashido was no longer alone, and that single fact was worth the world to him.


End file.
